He reached for the elevator button to try to catch her, but then changed his mind. He'd never find her, it was just a coincidence they were in the same place. He needed coffee. Coffee then the gym, that was the mission. Maybe he'd run into her again, or maybe it would be better if he didn't.
**************************************************************
Coach Marlow stood aside and let Eva in, she glanced around and headed for the sofa, smoothing her skirt and crossing her legs as she sat down.
"Thanks for meeting me here. I asked him to come to my room later this morning. Do you have any questions for me?"
"No, I don't think so. I watched the game last night, thanks for the tickets. He's amazing."
"You like hockey?"
"I kind of do, but I really like great skating. And he's very good. Where I grew up we used to say we were a drinking town with a hockey problem. Skating was everything. I was in like, 15 or 20 ice shows with the figure skating clubs there."
"You must be pretty good then?"
"No," she laughed, "it's just that it's pretty much a rule that everyone learn to skate."
The coach smiled then sat across from her. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm all set, let's just go over the details before he gets here."
"Okay, well I think we're on the same page. He needs a babysitter to..."
"Minder," she interrupted, "we call ourselves minders."
"Right," the coach looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes. "Anyway, he needs a uh...minder, to keep him sober and keep his mind on the game."
She nodded. "That's what we do, although being billed as his fiancée is unusual. Usually, we go with best friend or trainer or something."
The coach nodded, "Right, but those won't work in this case."
"Yep, so fiancée it is!" she said, just as Justus pushed open the door to the room.
"Oh, hi boss, I didn't know you were busy. I can come back."
"No, no, have a seat, I'd like to introduce you to Eva. She'll be traveling with us for the next few weeks."
Justus blinked as he recognized the curvy blonde from the elevator. And then his eyes widened in recognition. He had been right, it was Eva! It was an all grown-up Eva, with curves and subtle makeup and fancy clothes, but it was her.
"With us? Did I hear you say she was someone's fiancée?"
"Yes, I'm your fiancée. Good to meet you," she smiled cooly and met his eyes, as she extended her hand.
"My what! What the hell is going on here coach?" Justus was floored. This was too much. Fiancée!
"Yes, we've um, we've got a babysi...um, minder for you, to you know, help you on the straight and narrow until the playoffs are over."
"What? I don't need any help! I'm the most serious player you've got. Jesus, coach, what are you thinking?"
"Justus, it's not me. It's the owner, well actually, it's the insurance company. Your last few headlines have made them sit up and take notice. They've threatened to pull your insurance if you don't have this minder. You're not a good risk going into the finals if you're a loose cannon."
"This can't be happening," Justus roared. " A fiancée? Who's gonna believe that anyway?" He looked from one to the other, "I don't even believe it." He turned to Eva, "No offense, you're lovely and all, but I'm not the engagement type."
"So I've heard," she responded with only a slight eye roll. Remarkable restraint really, she congratulated herself.
"The thing is," Eva jumped in, "you need a companion according to your insurance company. Now, me? I usually go as a personal trainer, or a bodyguard, or even the best friend from home. Those scenarios aren't going to work here, so we decided on fiancée. A girlfriend you can leave home, but the fiancée can go on the road and it won't look too suspicious."
Justus paced. "But I don't need a minder. Coach! You know me, who's more serious about the game than I am?"
"I know, but this isn't only about that, the team management sees you as someone who could be compromised, the opposition will be gunning for you. Any wrong move could put you in the tabloids and out of commission."
Justus paced furiously, "This just can't be. It's ridiculous and embarrassing. I don't need a nanny!" and with that he stormed out of the suite.
"Well, that went well."
"He'll come around," said coach, with a grim shake of his head. "He has to."
"I'll get him," Eva stood.
"No, no, I think you'd better let him cool off first. I'll send him to see you later."
******************************************
More than an hour later Justus walked into the lobby of the hotel and headed for the elevator. Coach had let him know in no uncertain terms that this was happening, no matter what. And he was going to have to deal with it. Free Agent my ass, he thought ruefully. There was nothing free about working for someone else, no matter how good the money was. He was tempted to walk away from it all and go coach kids for a while.
God, they made him mad. He was still so furious he felt like he would burst. Justus remembered feeling like this as a kid, it was one of the reasons his parents had gotten him into hockey in the first place. They were hoping it would exhaust him and use up his energy. The house had taken a beating when he was a kid, and that wired energy and served him well on the ice. Off the ice, not so much.
Justus was pretty sure the fury was still rolling off of him in waves, and instead of the elevator he took the stairs, just to vent that much more steam.
He knocked on her door and Eva opened it slightly, just enough to see who it was. The chain was still across it, and the door held taught at the end of it.
"We need to talk," he said gruffly. "Have you told him?"
"Him who?"
"Him anyone! The coach, your boss? Does anyone know the truth?"
"No, and they're not going to either. I need this job."
"Unhook that thing, I'm coming in!"
Eva unhooked the door and stood back and Justus fairly exploded into the room. Words were tumbling out of his mouth so fast she could barely understand what he was saying.
That was fine with her, she knew why he was pissed off and she didn't blame him. But they each had a job to do, and dammit they were going to do their jobs and do them well, she'd make sure of it.
He was pacing and shouting, but looking at him was distracting her from his torrent of words. Justus was damp from a shower, but he was in workout clothes, shorts and one of those fancy technical material t-shirts. His height was matched by his muscles, hours of working out and skating had produced an amazing butt, powerful legs, and even with a shirt on she could see his chest and arm muscles ripple and flex as he stormed around her room.
Who knew he'd turn out so damn hot? Maybe she'd have stayed in....no, no, she shook off the thought. That would have been completely inappropriate.
She could even see his jaw muscles working, although that was probably because he was clenching his teeth or maybe biting his tongue so he didn't say anything worse to her.
"What are you thinking?" he yelled at her as he crossed the room. Then he kicked the sofa, spun around and sat down on it. One leg crossed over the other his foot tapped on his knee with a staccato beat. She wasn't sure she had ever seen anyone move their foot quite so fast.
"What do you mean? I have a job to do, and I'm going to do it. And that job is to make sure you do yours."
"There's so much wrong here, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, I'm, well I was, your brother..."
She held up her hand. "Stop right there. Step-brother. Ex-step-brother to be technical. For God's sake, they were only married for a hot minute." She stopped to calculate, "thirteen months, and for half of it they lived in apart. No one is going to remember it, no one."
Justus squinted at her. "You realize that if you're wrong, if they do, it will be an even bigger story than whatever bullshit the team owner, oh, sorry, the insurance company, thought I was going to get up to. He's engaged to his sister! I can s
ee the headlines now."
"No one is going to find out," Eva was pacing now. It had definitely occurred to her, but Colette had been so insistent, and she needed the money, and a place to stay, and the RV fixed up, and time off, she shook her head as if to shoo the thoughts out, "it won't happen. No one will know."
"You're kidding, right?" He stared at her, we're from the same town, there's what, like 3500 people there? And between the two of us we probably know 2000 of them! Hell, I can't drive into town without someone calling dad to let him know I'm there before I get to his damn house! A trip for groceries is a half an hour of conversation in the vegetable aisle. You think no one in town will remember?"
"It was so long ago, and for such a short time, yes, that's what I think, no one will remember. And if they do, it won't be until after the season is over. It's just four weeks, that's all, one short month. Then you'll have your trophy, and your life back, and I'll be on my way."
Justus shook his head with a deep sigh, "What's in it for you, anyway?"
"Justus, it's my job, that's what. I didn't even know for sure it was you until I went to the game the other night."
He squinted his eyes, "You didn't know it was me?"
"Well no, I mean, it's not like we stayed in touch, and well," she waved her hands, "I just didn't realize until after I agreed to do the job."
"And would you have agreed if you'd known it was me."
Eva blinked, and looked at him. She told him the truth, "I don't know, I really don't."
His eyes clouded for a moment, and she didn't know if that was the wrong answer because he wanted her to say yes, or because he wanted her to say no.
"So, have you thought this through?" he asked. "I mean really given this some thought? Traveling with the team, staying in the same hotel..."
Eve interrupted, "The same room actually."
"What? Oh, hell no. Not the same room. Bad enough you'll be in the same city."
"I have news, I'll be in the same room, and I'm traveling on the team bus. You're not understanding, they want me to really keep an eye on you. Like 100%, and I will know where you are at all times. Your salary is riding on it, and so is mine."
"That's so...infuriating!"
"Hey, don't murder the messenger. Or the minder. It wasn't my idea."
"So how are we going to work this? I mean you can't be with me all of the time. And what about the rest of it? The parts no one knows? Can we keep those secret too? We've managed for all this time. Why ruin it now?" And with that Justus began to advance on her until she was pressed up tight against the dresser. "Because if we were together all of the time, things could get...complicated," he finished, as he reached down to stroke her jaw.
Eva turned her head to the side to deflect him, but her body was betraying her and going into overdrive. Not good. So not good. God, everywhere he touched her she felt like flames were licking her skin. Ooooh, licking her skin, if Justus were licking her...her legs threatened to buckle.
Eva pushed the thought away and stood to face him. "Don't," she warned him, "just don't. That's not happening either."
Ignoring the alarm bells being set off by her animal instinct to push him down on the bed and impale herself on him, she looked into his eyes and said "Enough, Justus just... enough. Stop fighting it, it's like one of those finger puzzles, the more you struggle, the harder it will be. "
She looked into his eyes and held his gaze, "It's just work. You do your job, I'll do mine. That's all." And I'll do my best to keep my hands off you she thought, but wisely, didn't say.
The team bus was jammed. You'd think that with the kind of money riding on things they'd have, like six buses or something. But you'd be wrong, they had one. It just barely accommodated their players. Just barely. The bus was nice enough, just really jammed. And it might as well have said "He-Man Wimmen Haters" on the front door.
It was the ultimate boys clubhouse, leather sofas in the front and back, with bunks above them, room for a dozen more guys sleeping in the middle, and in the back another leather sofa with bunks above that. Flat screen TV's were stationed in several spots, and there was plenty of food. Tons of bananas, stacks of chips, homemade cookies from someone. And coffee. And a lot of booze tucked into the ice barrel next to the sink.
"Where should I put my stuff?" Eva asked.
"I guess here, at the end of my bunk."
"We're sharing, right, that was the deal?"
"Yup, couldn't ask someone to not take the bus anyway, so you're in with me sweetheart."
"Excellent, what could possibly go wrong?" Eva mumbled.
"What?" Justus raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing. Nothing. I'm going into the bathroom to change." The bathroom was surprisingly clean, and Eva managed to slip into a track suit she had brought to sleep in. Even shorts and a t-shirt would be too risqué with this crew.
"Nice, is that velour?" Justus said as he stroked the fabric on her arm.
"Shut-up, it was the least sexy thing I could find," she swatted at his hand.
"Well, it worked. Totally not sexy. We're in this bunk here, might as well hop in. I'm gonna go up front and play some cards."
"I'll go too."
"No, seriously, I'm right here, I won't do anything", he made air quotes, "naughty, but please don't hawk me here on the bus. The guys are already calling you my nanny, and we'll be lucky if none of them calls us out to the press. Just um, read or something, I'll be in later. You can sleep closest to the wall, less risk of falling out, or...being pinched by a random passing hockey player."
All of her life Eva had worked for people who often clearly had no idea what her job was like, even though they made the decisions. It had made for a lot of bad policies that were implemented by people who had no choice. Like when the cashier is told to confiscate a customer's credit card, or decline a return.
This reminded her of that. Obviously no one at the insurance company had thought very carefully about how she would fit in on a team bus with a dozen hockey players and their coaches. But this part of it was her job, making it work.
She crawled into the bunk, and laid there, staring at the ceiling of the motor coach that she was about to call home.
**************************************************************
Justus sat squished against the booth seat in the front of the bus. He had just folded his hand because he wasn't paying attention to the game, and he was deep in thought.
About her. About Eva. Who'd have thought she'd turn up? His dad and her mom had been married so briefly when he and Eva were teens. He had never forgotten her.
She was just as lovely as he remembered, soft and round, not all pointy edges and sharp plains like so many of the girls who he had dated. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but he preferred his women like her, a little more curve.
They had been teenagers thrust together and then apart by their parents bad decisions. Terrible ones, really. His dad and her mom had just fed into each others' crazy.
They had shared the same roof only briefly, but Eva had always been good to him. He smiled as he remembered when she was going through her baking phase.
Cake after cake had come out of the kitchen, and brownies and cookies. She had always asked him to sample whatever she had made. She had acted like she was his mom or wife or something and set out the goodies with milk and a napkin. For a growing boy who was always hungry because he played hockey every day, except when he was playing baseball or soccer, the endless treats from the kitchen were heaven.
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